The American Spectator

Print Email

Text Size

The Spectacle Blog

Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, argued at this morning's American Spectator Newsmaker Breakfast that Sen. Barack Obama would be a weaker general election candidate than Sen. Hillary Clinton because of his inexperience and extreme liberalism.

"I do not see (Obama) as some 9-foot tall, overwhelming candidate," Cole said.

Although he described Obama as a "phenomenon," Cole was skeptical that the level of enthusiasm the Illinois Senator was generating would last through a long general election campaign against a tested politician like Sen. John McCain.

He noted that Obama has a more liberal voting record than Clinton, that he has the "thinnest public resume of any presidential candidate since Wendell Willkie," and that he is not a plausible commander in chief.

Clinton, he said, would actually be a stronger candidate, because she has already been vetted.

As far as congressional races, where Republicans have fewer financial resources than Democrats and already face the retirements of 29 members, Cole wouldn't allow himself to give into doom and gloom.

"I didn't come here to preside over the liquidation of the Republican Party," he said.

Cole argued that while the retirements present challenges, they occured mostly in safe Republican districts, and would provide the party with an oppourtunity to bring new blood toWashington.

He also said that the presidential race has been unfolding well for Republicans, because he believes the primary process has moved McCain further to the right on border security and making the Bush tax cuts permanent. He said he believed that Republicans would rally around McCain in the end, because he is much better than the alternatives.

I will have some video up shortly of an interview I conducted with Cole.

UPDATE: Video here.

topics:
John McCain, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, NATO